"I was duped," said August Bricker, 48, of Bay Shore, Long Island. "I wanted to provide quality low-income housing, and make some money, too."

He said lawyers and property managers took advantage of him, saying there was nothing wrong with his properties as problems mounted.

Now facing $27,559 in back taxes, Bricker said he's considering declaring bankruptcy for his company, 162-70 Brighton Ave LLC. The city wants to sue him to pay for the building's demolition.

Bricker admits he was in over his head when he bought the complex with another next door for $205,000 in September 2005. He said they were the first properties he'd bought. Bricker said he didn't know the buildings had no certificate of occupancy.

Less than a month after he bought them, a tenant gutted one building by throwing a can of flammable liquid through a window during a fight with her husband. Bricker said he paid for demolition.

In 2008, a sewage back-up in the second building caused outrage when contractors pumped water from the basement into a community center's play area. Bricker contends the contractor wasn't pumping raw sewage into the yard, but water from a nearby washing machine that had discharged onto the floor.

Bricker said he doesn't have money to tear down the second building. He said he's lost $50,000 on the property already.

"I offered it to the city and the community center to knock it down and build a park," he said. "They didn't want it."